Posted on 01/16/2013 2:20:45 PM PST by FlJoePa
Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school's football program back to glory, Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.
Kekua, 22 years old, had been in a serious car accident in California, and then had been diagnosed with leukemia. SI's Pete Thamel described how Te'o would phone her in her hospital room and stay on the line with her as he slept through the night. "Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice," Thamel wrote.
Upon receiving the news of the two deaths, Te'o went out and led the Fighting Irish to a 20-3 upset of Michigan State, racking up 12 tackles. It was heartbreaking and inspirational. Te'o would appear on ESPN's College GameDay to talk about the letters Kekua had written him during her illness. He would send a heartfelt letter to the parents of a sick child, discussing his experience with disease and grief. The South Bend Tribune wrote an article describing the young couple's fairytale meeting—she, a Stanford student; he, a Notre Dame star—after a football game outside Palo Alto.
Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadspin.com ...
Sports media is as leftist as the MSM, especially Deadspin which is part of Gawker.
This man has a career in politics waiting for him.
Uh...Deadspin is breaking this story. It’s the espin’s of the world that bathed in it all season. Maybe you should read it. It’s actually shocking.
Just wow.
I understand that. I’m just saying that Deadspin is no better.
I watched the last major award between him, Manziel and the QB from KS State right before the Heisman.
In that awards show, Te’o won. The announces dude comes up and starts talking about the tragedy in his life, including his “dead” GF and Te’O did not flinch or make a move.
Thank God AJ’s girlfriend was sitting in the stands for Brent Musberger. I guess we now know why ESPN did not do a sob story on the dead girlfriend for the championship game hoopla.
What classes do they offer at the Punahou School? Did BO take the same ones as MTO?
ND Official response:
On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.
Dennis Brown
University Spokesman | Assistant Vice President
That’s all great. What about the phone calls? Did he fall asleep at night putting 8 hours on his phone listening to Tuiasasopo (sp)? Srsly?
He can pull a Biden and embellish the story.
If he really wants points and runs as a Dem, he can blame Bush,too.
A Tweet to Manti Te’o from Lennay Kekua’s Twitter account at 5:07 p.m. today (Screenshot in case it’s erased): http://i.imgur.com/POGyY.png
Deadspin is getting better. At least they seem to dig a little bit. They have no competition, as the rest of them are lazy, stupid, biased pigs. Period.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGgIwSc8M3M&feature=player_embedded
In this video Te’o claims Kekua is the love of his life. He is not a “victim” as the ND statement would leave you to believe.
Now we know why Manti sucked in the BCS championship game. He wasn’t really there.
What does leftist have to do with this story? It is superb investigative reporting that is so lacking in the MSM. I wish that we had more such reporting on politics and current events.
I thought the capper was the following:
Update (5:17 p.m.): Notre Dame responds:
On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.
Dennis Brown
University Spokesman | Assistant Vice President
Let's see if ESPN will cover this story. It is just as much a blockbuster as the Armstrong fraud.
Well, another reason to hate Notre Dame.
To be a big shot democrat you must be willing to use dead people for your own political advantage. Dead voters are the most loyal democrats and dead children make the best political props. The dead grandma or relative can also serve as a great distraction or gain a lot of sympathy. It’s amazing how low a democrat will go to screw you over.
One of the other players posted that he talked to “her” on the phone several times as well. So there seems to have been some girl involved with this hoax.
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